


Blackwell Flowers

by wwheeljack



Category: Senjou no Valkyria | Valkyria Chronicles
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28544703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wwheeljack/pseuds/wwheeljack
Summary: The war had taken something from everyone, and it had finally ended on the Crystal Sea with the sinking of the Centurion and the destruction of Belgar's tank. But, for Eileen Blackwell and Laurent McCloud, the war had ended in the Frozen Forest when Curtis volunteered to destroy the ragnite nettings generator alongside Sergeant Raz, and never returned.
Kudos: 2





	Blackwell Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> Like Old Times did a number on me.
> 
> Valkyria Chronicles 4 © SEGA

_November 1940_

Snow lay like a blanket over the small farm town, covering trees and farm animals alike with its icy grip. Smelk had always been a quiet town, populated more densely by farm animals than people, and winter's chill only served to further amplify the quiet nature of the town.

Before, winter had been a time of fun, but now, after her time in Squad E, winter only reminded Eileen Blackwell of what she had lost. She hated the memories that the snow and ice brought back to her, the reminder of what she had lost on a frozen island before Schwartzgrad, and thus she hated the onset of winter.

Eileen had joined the Edinburgh Army's 101st Division, Squad E in April of 1935, motivated solely to protect her older brother, Curtis, who had joined Squad E in 1934. Every one of her earliest memories of Curtis was him protecting her, always defending her from bullies and comforting her when she was scared.

Their parents had died when Eileen was only five and, ever since, Curtis had been the sole source of income for their family's small farm. It had taken years for Eileen to realize that she and her brother were always poor, since her brother had always given her everything she desired. Her brother and his best friend, Laurent, had always protected her - and she had found joining Squad E the only way to repay and protect her brother.

But she had failed, and her brother was gone, buried under ice and snow, never to protect her again. Curtis had volunteered to go with Sergeant Raz to destroy the generator powering the ragnite infused netting that blocked the _Centurion_ from its mission, and she hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye to her brother.

The last thing she saw of her brother was seeing his back as he marched out into the blizzard alongside Sergeant Raz. No goodbye… nothing…

"Ms. Blackwell?"

A soft, hesitant voice pulled Eileen from her thoughts and to the woman standing in front of her counter, her arms loaded with packets of seeds. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Eileen reassured the woman, one of her flower shops regulars who owned a local restaurant, with a smile and a slight shake of her head before she took the seeds from the woman and began calculating the total ducats for the purchase, "I am alright."

The woman looked at her closely before she handed over the ducats for her purchase, thanked Eileen, and headed towards the door of her flower shop. But, before her customer left, the older lady turned back to her and, with a knowing look in her eyes, gave her a worried look.

"You have helped me with my garden so much, it would be an honor for you to come and eat at my place tonight, on the house of course."

Eileen looked away from the woman as her cheeks flamed with embarrassment, but she relented nonetheless. It was easier to hang out with others every once in a while, it kept the people of Smelk from prying into her business.

"I'll be there. I promise."

"Excellent! Oh, and the leader of our town watch always eats dinner every Sunday at my restaurant. " With that, the woman nodded, gave her a wave and left the flower shop, leaving Eileen to herself once again.

_The leader of the town watch... Laurent._

Eileen had heard of Laurent's home watch, locals trained by her… - could she still call Laurent her friend, even when she had not spoken to him in five years? - by the lancer to protect their home town. She knew that Laurent was busy and, from the gossip she overheard between her customers, never took time for himself. His whole existence was protecting their home, and only that, and Eileen had never even once crossed paths with Laurent since they had disembarked the train that had carried every returning soldier back to their hometowns.

He was avoiding her… just as she avoided Laurent. Laurent was - _had_ \- been as close to a second brother as one could be, and Eileen had loved him as much as she did Curtis. But seeing Laurent would only make her think of her brother, and she saw enough of her brother in her nightmares.

She didn't want to face Laurent, not when her thoughts always returned to that frozen forest. That _damned_ forest…

Hot tears streaked down her face, though Eileen desperately wiped them away with a vengeful vigor. She couldn't let her customers see her crying - she didn't want their questions or their pity. Eileen had had more than enough fake concern over her brother's death since she had returned home, and she couldn't face their insincerity - not when every night was consumed by nightmares of losing her brother, and Squad E.

A tiny, bitter scowl pulled at Eileen before she gathered herself from behind her register counter and shifted her gaze around her flower shop. The greenhouse heater pumped hot air, enough to protect the delicate flowers from frost, but she still wasn't comfortable - especially with the idea of possibly seeing Laurent again.

But she had promised… and Laurent… Laurent was still a friend of her brother. For Curtis' sake, she would face the fear that resided within her heart.

* * *

 _Eileen fidgeted, plucking at the straps of her engineer's kit as she watched Karen and the remaining medics tend to Claude, Riley and Miles' injuries. The rest of Squad E lingered in the background, all gazing over the Crystal Ocean where the war had ended with the sinking of the_ Centurion _. At least, the war had ended there for everyone else… Eileen's war had ended with Curtis' death._

 _She could hear her fellow squadmates talking in the back, quiet and solemn, all as unsure of the_ end _as the other. But her end had been earlier, and Eileen was not looking in the direction of the_ Centurion _, but beyond, over the ocean._

 _The sound of footsteps, heavy and distinctly dull - dragging - drew Eileen's gaze away from the Crystal Ocean and to Laurent, who stopped beside her. She could tell that Laurent was favoring his left arm, but he made no mention of it as he looked past the_ Centurion' _s watery grave._

" _I'm not leaving him." There was a coldness in Laurent's voice, almost unrecognizable for its hollowness. There was no boisterous, upbeat passion in Laurent's words, only a broken, shattered misery. This person wasn't Laurent… he couldn't be… just as she couldn't be the Eileen from just hours before, when her brother was still alive._

" _We can't go back," Eileen gasped, before she jerked her head away from Laurent, praying he did not see the pain in her soul. She could feel tears building in her eyes, threatening to overflow in front of her entire squad, but she couldn't cry! She had to stay strong - she had to stay strong… for Curtis…_

_Curtis was dead. Dead! Her brother… her only family, her best friend… gone. Dead, and she'd never even said goodbye._

_She couldn't have held back the tears even if she tried, and it was as if a sudden weight seized her, forcing her to collapse to her knees and release the flood of tears that she had been withholding for hours. Eileen was alone now, without a brother to protect or watch over her, to love and joke - and open the flower shop she had always told Curtis she dreamed of._

_The frozen air of Schwartzgrad engulfed her, calling to the agony that screamed from deep within her soul, and Eileen paid no attention to the numbness of her face as she continued to cry. Her brother..._

" _Curtis…"_

_A warm embrace suddenly wrapped around her, swallowing her in its nearness as Laurent's hot breath billowed over her. She dared a peak up to her brother's best friend, seeing him through blurry eyes as the lancer kneeled beside her and pulled her to his chest. Pain was etched over Laurent's face but he was strong… always the strongest of them..._

_Laurent had always been the biggest of the three of them, and he so dwarfed Eileen that she couldn't help but pull herself closer against Laurent, until her face was pressed against his chest. Tears continued to run down her cheeks, and she didn't bother to try and wipe them away or act strong. She'd lost her brother, the reason for her strength… Why couldn't she cry?_

" _I'm sorry… Eileen… I should have…" Laurent's voice cracked like the ice they were standing on, and then Eileen felt the unmistakable burn of tears across her back._

_Laurent was crying. She couldn't remember ever seeing him cry, not even when Laurent's mother had been killed by a rogue Imperial. It was almost… comforting to know that Laurent was as damaged as she was…_

" _Eileen?"_

" _Laurent? What's going on?"_

_Voices suddenly swarmed Eileen - Jimmy and Keigel and Jester… and there was Connor and Stanley, a cacophony of concern that blurred away to indefinable noise. She did not notice as the rest of Squad E came to her side, all she wanted was Laurent's comforting warmth and her brother._

* * *

The Federation had threatened every member of Squad E with, what the superiors defined, as a "fate worthy of traitors" before anyone had been able to return to their homes. Eileen knew that the threat meant that the truth of her brother's sacrifice - and the horrors of the war, and their final fight in Schwartzgrad - would never be able to be known. But she knew, and she hated the Federation for their lies - all to save face and hide their use of young children as bombs.

In the five years since the end of the war, Eileen had struggled to come to terms with the fact that her brother's sacrifice - and Sergeant Raz's, and every other person who had died in the war - had been… she couldn't say _pointless_ , but some days Curtis' sacrifice truly felt pointless.

 _Dinner_. _Go to_ die Ruhe' _s, eat dinner and go back home._

Eileen steeled herself before she took a deep sigh and faced the mirror in her bathroom. She had combed her hair to the neatness she'd had during Squad E and, for the memory of her brother, she positioned the flower hairclasp he had given her on her fifteenth birthday - only days before he had left for the Edinburgh army.

She made sure that she looked like a respectable member of Smelk's townspeople, she had too, otherwise they'd be able to see through to her broken heart. Now, maybe if she was lucky Laurent would ignore her and wouldn't bring up the memories of the days when it was her, Curtis and Laurent. The days when she was happy, and not pretending every minute of the day that she was fine.

Eileen closed up her shop and marched purposefully to the one restaurant in all of Smelk. As quiet as the rest of the town, Eileen was relieved to see that only one table was occupied, by two people she faintly thought looked familiar. But she dismissed it as familiarity from her flower shop, and nothing more. So it was just two strangers and no Laurent. Yet.

"Ms. Blackwell! I'm so relieved to see you," the restaurant owner hurried up to Eileen and, too vigorously, greeted her by shaking her hand. "I have a table just for you, young miss. Right this way."

The owner ushered Eileen to a back table, handed her a menu and, with a smile that seemed permanent even when she was shopping at Eileen's flower shop, hurried away. Eileen stared blankly at the menu, only scanning over it with mild interest. She wasn't _that_ hungry that a large plate of meat and potatoes sounded overly appealing… but she had to keep appearances.

"Hello, Eileen," Laurent's level voice echoed above her, snapping her attention from the menu laid out before her and to the face of her brother's best friend.

Eileen was shocked to realize that Laurent had not changed, at least not physically. He still had that young, boyish face that all the other girls considered "cute" - were Laurent not her brother's best friend, Eileen would consider Laurent cute also. His brown hair still spiked out at the nape of his neck, and his posture was as serious and tough as it had always been in Squad E. But it was the shadows that resided in the lancer's eyes - a pale purple that gleamed silver - that told Eileen the truth.

There was a distance within Laurent's eyes, but he wasn't distant enough for Eileen to miss the raw pain that gnawed at her brother's best friend. She didn't know what to think, how to react to Laurent's stony expression and his shadowed, damaged soul.

Laurent had always been outgoing, brave, and ready to fight for what he believed was right when they were younger. Before the war. Before the Crystal Ocean, and before that frozen forest had torn a gaping hole through the trio that had been Curtis, Eileen and Laurent. But now… now all Eileen could see in Laurent was a brokenness - the same brokenness that lived within her own heart.

"L… Laurent…" Eileen scrambled to her feet, her eyes shifting away from the lancer before she gave a flustered laugh. "I guess I'm at your table, aren't I? I was just leaving, actually..."

Pain flickered in Laurent's eyes, but he seemed to chase it off with a weak smile before he shrugged with feigned nonchalance. "Please don't leave on my account. I believe Mrs. Fischer made you sit here on purpose. She's always going on about us, and questioning why she never sees us together anymore."

"Oh…" Eileen looked down with a sigh before she gestured to the table and sat back down. "It's nice to see you, Laurent. You're always so busy, I didn't want to bother you-"

The anger that flamed across Laurent's face surprised Eileen, who could not help but to nervously shift her gaze away from the dark haired man as he sat down across from her. "You can come out and just tell me that you blame me for Curtis' death, alright? I know it's my fault. I should have volunteered… it should have been…"

Laurent cut himself off, but not before Eileen heard his voice catch on a broken sob and saw the hateful guilt that darkened his eyes.

But she didn't blame Laurent, she never had! Why did he think that she did? Eileen had never even suggested-

A tired sigh from Laurent seemed to be the only sound in the restaurant, and the couple across the room were staring directly at Eileen and Laurent. "I'm sorry… I let both of you down, Eileen. I've-"

"Please don't leave, Laurent." The words were out of Eileen's mouth before Laurent could stand and, for added measure - she wanted to reassure herself that Laurent was still there, unlike her brother - she took his right hand in her grip. "I never blamed you, and I never could. I… I've been scared that being near you would make my nightmares worse. I'm afraid, Laurent."

Laurent said nothing for a long minute, then slowly he removed Eileen's hand from his arm and stood up. Eileen flushed and tried to avert her gaze from Laurent - she'd chased him off, she knew it-

His arms were as warm and comforting as the day when the war ended, though Eileen was far more surprised by Laurent's closeness this time. But she did not shove her brother's friend away, she wouldn't, not when his closeness opened the dam of pain and reminded her so much of Curtis.

"I can never make up for Curtis and what we lost when he died," Laurent breathed, "but I promise I will protect you, Eileen."

Eileen closed her eyes and sighed, a low sound that shed the sole burden of her pain, and leaned into Laurent. "And I'll watch your back, too."

"Of course you will," Laurent chuckled. Eileen froze at the sound, at the genuinity of his laugh, the small glimmer of the old Laurent showing itself even through the pain and agony she'd seen in his eyes and heard in his voice.

Neither of them would ever see Curtis again, have his protective nature anchor them down, but Eileen still had Laurent, and Laurent still had her. She knew Curtis wouldn't want her to push his best friend away, not when Laurent was hurting as much as she was.

Then suddenly the door to the restaurant banged open and a cheerful, loud voice snapped her gaze up from Laurent's hug and to the familiar face of Jimmy, another lancer from Squad E. Jimmy smiled and hurried over, his golden eyes soft as he ruffled Laurent's hair and then hers.

"Sorry we're late," Jimmy began, "ran into-"

"Jimmy almost got us in a car wreck," a voice interrupted, moments before Odin - or Thomas, as Eileen considered him, much to the former scout's constant chagrin - came around Jimmy's right.

Thomas' long black hair still draped over his right eye, but there was a friendliness that she did not recognize from the war within the scout's expression. She had been assigned on missions with Odin a few times, enough for Eileen to enjoy his silly antics.

Jimmy let out a laugh before he gave Thomas a pat on the shoulder that staggered the smaller man, though Thomas quickly rightened himself and took a meaningful step away from the golden haired lancer. "Hades is right. I wouldn't have seen the deer if he hadn't shouted at the top of his lungs for me to brake."

"Hades?" Laurent questioned as he released Eileen from his hug, stood up and greeted their two former squad members.

"It's Thomas' new persona," Lily, who Eileen hadn't even seen as she lurked in the shadows behind Thomas and Jimmy, scoffed, "and just as annoying as Odin."

"Hey!" Thomas protested, his voice cracking as he shot Lily a glare that she only returned with a bored blink.

"What are you three doing here?" Eileen asked as she scrambled to her feet and excitedly greeted all three. She hadn't realized - or hadn't _accepted_ \- how much she'd missed her friends and fellow squadmates after the war. She'd cared about them as much as she did her brother and Laurent.

"Laurent invited everyone from Squad E here," Jimmy explained, "though I was expecting to see more than just Hanna and Jascha here."

Eileen started then gave Jimmy a judging look. She hadn't seen Hanna or Jascha-

The couple!

"Jimmy!" The boisterous shout was Eileen's only warning before she, along with Laurent, Jimmy, Thomas and Lily, were hit by a Hanna sized whirlwind of a hug. Hanna only let go when a stern snap of her name from a voice that Eileen recognized immediately as Jascha's, snapped the former _Centurion_ cook into awareness.

Hanna let out a laugh as she finally let go of her squadmates, though she seemed to give extra care to ruffle Eileen and Laurent's hair. "Hey there, kids. You two doing alright?"

Eileen shrugged in response, she couldn't lie and say she was fine, not when it was obvious that Hanna and Jascha both had overheard her conversation with Laurent. "Making it through every day so far. That's about all."

Jimmy and Hanna both shared a look of concern between themselves before Hanna's expression turned serious and she nodded. "When Jascha and I received Laurent's letter we knew we had to come to this… anniversary party. Did you get any of the letters we sent you?"

"Letters?" She didn't remember any letters, not from any members of Squad E. "No… I didn't receive any…"

"Ah, no worries!" Hanna barked. "Just means Jascha was right and I was wrong. I _did_ get the postal address wrong."

Eileen couldn't help herself but to laugh at the self-deprecating way Hanna rubbed at the nape of her neck, the lancer's positive nature a fire in the chill of winter. To Hanna's right, Jascha rolled his gray eyes but not without the smallest smile softening his stern expression.

"Hi, Jascha," Eileen greeted, wanting the stern mathematician included into the reunion. She had worked with him and the rest of the grenadiers closely during the war, but his stern, no-nonsense nature had always made getting to know the grenadier hard.

"Eileen. Laurent," Jascha said in ways of greeting.

Stern. Logical. No-nonsense. It was almost reassuring to know that Jascha was the same person she'd known during the war. Thomas, who had started to argue with Lily, seemed the same man from five years ago, all but for his new alter ego. Lily and Jimmy teased Thomas until the scout finally scowled and sat down at an open table, a frown plastered over his face.

Laurent chuckled quietly beside Eileen, then turned his head to look down at her. "Hope you don't mind me inviting the squad here. I missed them…"

Eileen shook her head and smiled. "I missed our squadmates too, Laurent."

Jester and Stanley were the next to arrive, Stanley with a slew of jokes that made Eileen laugh, even though they weren't _that_ funny, and Jester with his usual laid back attitude and cheerful smile. Eileen had liked both from the moment she had met them, and she was relieved to see both seemed happy.

To her surprise, Ryan, Keigel and Ronald appeared next, Keigel immediately finding his way over to Laurent, Jimmy and Hanna and striking up a conversation on lances the moment he stepped through the doors. Ryan noticed Eileen and gave her a curt nod, one she returned with a shy wave. She still remembered Ryan charging through a line of fire during the siege of Lindbergh base to save her from two Imperial shocktroopers. Ryan was intimidating and cold but Eileen was thankful to see the mercenary still alive.

Connor arrived minutes after those three, his green hair as messy as always and his gold, horn rimmed glasses askew as he hurried into the restaurant. Eileen waved in Connor's direction as Stanley continued to tell her a line of jokes - most of which she had already tuned out - and was surprised when the writer smiled in her direction.

Over the next hour, the remaining members of Squad E poured into the restaurant, a blur of greetings, jokes, hugs and closeness that she had not accepted since that last day on the Crystal Ocean. There was still an aching, gaping hole where the loss of her brother would never be repaired, but all the loneliness she had impounded upon herself since Curtis' death slowly slipped away in the hours of reminiscing, catching up, and jokes with all of Squad E.

She was never aware of how many hours passed in the restaurant, nor did she know when she finally fell asleep, but she did know that the ache in her heart was not such a chasm any longer. Curtis was gone but she still had friends who cared about her, including Laurent, and that was more than enough to let her finally sleep without nightmares of her brother's death.


End file.
